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PETER LELLYETT, WEST GATE TUNNEL PROJECT DIRECTOR: I think this is a first of its kind; this is the largest diameter tunnel in the southern hemisphere to have ever been constructed.
The promise is that it’ll take 9,000 trucks currently rat-running through the west off suburban streets and alleviate heavy traffic. The entire project was meant to be completed by last year. It is now projected to be finished by 2025 and expected to be four and half billion dollars over budget – taxpayers will be slugged $1.9 billion of that.
ELIAS CLURE: The delay and cost overrun of the project can largely be attributed to the discovery of toxic soil and a two-year long dispute of where to dispose of it.Do you think that was handled the right way given that it caused such a delay on the project? ELIAS CLURE: Daniel Andrews had also promised to kill the previous government’s commitment to build a controversial major road network known as the East West Link.CHRIS HALE: As a new incoming Labor government some time ago now has come into power, they've responded by doing away obviously, with the East Link, the East West link project, and then proposing a different project that I believe mainly comes from Transurban.
ELIAS CLURE: There was no public tender process, but Infrastructure Minister Jacinta Allan says it’s not uncommon for public projects to be brought to government by private industry. It was a project that Transurban had brought to the government, with a price tag attached to it, of taxpayers’ money. ELIAS CLURE: The Parliamentary Budget Office estimates the West Gate Tunnel will generate $10.7 billion in toll revenue for Transurban by 2045.
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